Add P to PPP – Probity
The resignation of health minister Vishwajeet Rane as the chairperson of the PPP monitoring committee for the new district hospital at Mapusa, is nothing but an effort to hold off pressure from within his party and the opposition.
Clearly faced with allegations of irregularities and corruption over the manner in which government hospitals are sought to be managed and run in the PPP mode, ostensibly to modernize and upgrade health services in the country, the health minister has made a token attempt to clean up by appointing the health secretary as chairperson of the PPP monitoring committee. The Health secretary, whose close proximity to the health minister is open knowledge, will all but be a proxy for the health minister.
This brings us to a larger debate over the need to bring in part or complete privatization of the health sector. The crucial operative part of this debate is that we are taking of a people sensitive area like health where the parameters for decision making have to be different from projects under industry and commerce. At the end of the day, the role of most important P in the 3 P’s is not public but private. The private partner in the partnership needs to make profits but overall contribute to the social cause.
From the way PPP projects in the health sector are being handled in Goa, there is very little confidence that the private part of the partnership will not be dictated by cold hard profit but by public service. And if there has been a failure it is this. The Health Minister either by doing too much to push private players in the health sector and doing too little – at least visibly- to display complete transparency in the process of inviting private players, has failed to win people’s confidence. And he is on the wrong side of the time debate. He has indeed had time to display this transparency.
While consistent reporting on the subject will further unravel procedural lapses in the way the request for qualification for the Mapusa hospital project was issued or the fact that the law department did not vet it legally, the people of Goa have less complex but more important questions. In the ultimate analysis what is that people who cannot afford to pay exorbitant hospital bills asking. “Will we get basic health services free of charge? Will a sufficient number of beds be available for needy patients? What will be the cost of a heart bypass operation or a brain surgery?
Simply put, the PPP model in Goa, salutes the Private P and takes for granted the Public P. Part privatisation is welcome only when the partnership between public and private is equal. It cannot be a model where the beneficiaries are high premium paying health insurance policy holders or actually those who have immense wealth insurance.
Only once the above are addressed, will the immediate issues which are dominated discussions in the assembly be put into perspective. Issues like why was a consultant appointed for the North Goa districts hospital case by a committee headed by the health minister, need to be addressed. Secondly after a sufficient time lapse, we are still in the dark about the exact mode of the Public Private Partnership. Thirdly, the RFQ, as reported, states that companies with a turnover of a mere RS 15 crore for the last three years will be eligible while trusts and societies, to be eligible, will have to have a turnover of Rs 100 crores.
In the interest of transparency, let the Health Minister, as a test case put all the facts on the table and ensure that if the option of going to the old Asilo hospital was being taken away, the new option of going to the North Goa hospital to get themselves treated will not be a financial deterrent. After all, a hospital is not a holiday destination.
The people of Goa, urgently want another P to be added to PPP. Probity
